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Journal of Scientific Computing ISSN NO: 1524-2560 A Face of Horror in Stephen King’s Carrie 1#Dr. SUDHIR V. NIKAM, Head, PG Department of English B.N.N.College, Bhiwandi, Mumbai 2*Mr. RAJKIRAN J. BIRAJE, Shri Shahaji Chhatrapati Mahavidyala, Dasara Chowk, Kolhapur. PhD scholar ( Mumbai University) Modern horror fiction would not be complete without the landmark works and ideas of author Stephen King. When someone thinks of Stephen King, the most popular horror fiction author of the century, it is likely that they would imagine the blood, gore, supernatural elements and suspense for which he is known. The present research paper has purpose to introspect the formula of horror applied in the novel Carrie. It is hard to believe in living in an old orthodox ultra-religious family in a progressive world. Even a sane and rational being would suffer if he is thrown or grown up in such a fanatic family. This is exactly what Stephen King portrays in Carrie. A serious of unfortunate events in the past deeply traumatizes Carrie psychologically and results in Carrie turning into the monster figure of the story. In horror fiction at least one character is given a supernatural power and Carrie falls under this category through the character Carrie white. The relationship between normality and the monster is the key element in every horror story and this is what we can experience in this novel. This paper also talks about anxiety theories made by Freudian and these are reality anxiety and moral anxiety through the characters Carrie and Margaret. This paper figures out the horror elements like telepathy, telekinesis, horror of first period, reality anxiety, moral anxiety, and repression of sexual desires, psychological keywords:Carrie, Psychological issues, Telepathy, reality anxiety,horror, Telekinesis Since the publication of his first novel Carrie, Stephen King has become one of the best-selling authors in the US. He is known as the King of horror fiction. King dedicates this novel to wife Tabitha:"This is for Tabby, who got me into it and then bailed me out of it" (CAR- introduction xiii). Carrie is a psychokinetic novel by American author Stephen King which is his first published novel, released on April 5, 1974, with 30,000 copies. The novel set primarily in the year of 1979 and it revolves around the eponymous Carrie White, a misfit and bullied high school girl who uses her newly discovered telekinetic powers to take revenge on those who torment her, while in the process causing one of the worst local disasters in American history. King has commented that he finds the work to be "raw" and "with a surprising power to hurt and horrify." It is one of the most frequently banned books in United States schools. Much of the book uses newspaper clippings, magazine articles, letters, and excerpts to tell how Carrie destroyed the fictional town of Chamberlain, Maine while exacting revenge on her sadistic classmates and her own mother Margaret. The front page of the novel itself says, ‘Carrie White is no ordinary girl’. The first inside page of the novel begins with a brief paragraph and says: Nobody was really surprised when it happened, not really at the subconscious level where savage things grow. On the surface, all the girls in the shower room were shocked, thrilled, ashamed, or simply glad......What none of them knew, of course, was that Carrie White was telekinetic. (CAR 3) Volume 8 Issue 10 2019 47 http://jscglobal.org/ Journal of Scientific Computing ISSN NO: 1524-2560 Normally Horror fiction writers portray their characters with extra- human powers and this is not a new phenomenon. At least one character is given a supernatural power and Carrie falls under this category through the character Carrie. Famous critic Dana Dal Delorge says: The supernatural is no longer understood as an external and objective reality but rather as imaginary and interior phenomena projected by the self and in its own image. (xiii) Stephen King tries to bring the exact element in his famous novel Carrie through his writing and characters. Stephen King paints his characters with super-power but reader can not feel that they are superheroes or they do not come with super-human powers. Moreover, they do not commit any heroic deeds, rather they come with every-day reality that is why readers believe the supernatural phenomenon. Many critics and periodicals have praised Carrie and Stephen King. Let's look at them. "King's imagination is vast and he knows how to engage the deepest sympathies of his readers....one of the greatest story tellers of all time" reviewed by Guardian Times (CAR cover page praise for Stephen King and Carrie). Some critics of Daily Mail Times and Sunday Telegrapagh Time say Carrie is the finest example of Gory and horrifying. You cannot put it down and it is blessed with an apparently inexhaustible imagination and talent for storytelling. You cannot help admiring King's narrative skills and his versatility as a storyteller. Carrie is not the only novel which talks about teenage; rather, there are other novels which talk about loss of innocence, portray of childhood such as Rosemary’s Baby (1967) by Ira Levin, The Other(1971) by Thomos Tryon, The Exorcist(1971) by William Blatty, The Omen(1976) by David Seltzer. Stephen King used to work as a teacher at the time of publishing this book in Hampden Academy which he left after receiving payment from the publishers. King brought telekinetic theme in this book as he himself had widely written about telekinesis. King always says that he cannot even imagine being raised up by such mother (Margaret). King says that he did not expect much from Carrie Novel. King said that he always used to think that who would read about a poor girl with menstrual problems but it is super hit now. King once said in the University of Maine that he did not say Carrie novel as a crap but instead he said that it was a young novel by a young writer which reminded him a cookie baked by a first grader, tasty enough but burned at the bottom. Feminine Powers Unleashed studies the novel from a psychoanalytical, feminist point of view. This novel is set against the feminist anxieties about power and gender. Masculinity concept leads the main character. When we analyze the novel from the sociological point of view, the story talks about patriarchal system to which the characters try to conform. Anthony Magistrale, analyzing the writer’s fiction, says that “his critics of institutions, his ideology suggest his commitment to the radical politics of the sixties’’ (Thompson, Voller and Frank 221). The novel has background of American culture of 1960 where teenagers were bullied and in this novel we can experience the same theme. Carrie White, a 16 years old college kid has supernatural abilities. Volume 8 Issue 10 2019 48 http://jscglobal.org/ Journal of Scientific Computing ISSN NO: 1524-2560 These supernatural abilities are going to prove fatal to the fate of all town members. These telepathic, telekinetic and broadcast abilities have a devastating effect in the events that are portrayed in this novel. Carrie has three special abilities the existence of which is scientifically unproven in real world as these powers are considered as pseudo ones. These qualities are telepathy, broadcast abilities and telekinesis. Telepathy can be defined as the supposed communication of thoughts or ideas by means other than the known senses of humans or any other electronic equipment. For example if X communicates with Y without using 5 sensory human organs and without any electronic equipment just by using mind no matter how far they both are from each other then it is referred as telepathy. The scientific existence of this power is debatable. Telekinesis can be defined as the ability to move, bend or destroy objects through mind power, without even touching the objects. This is also called as psychokinesis or PK. The existence of this power too is scientifically unproven and hence, it is considered as a part of pseudo-science. In this novel, Carrie possesses the powers and uses them in a destructive way when she gets trolled, taunted and humiliated beyond expectations. Carrie is a very isolated girl who is deprived of love from all and even from her mother. She always gets trolled and taunted in school and wherever she goes in fact she is laughing stock, joker, and ‘eating shit’(CAR 4). Students always make fun of her and her schoolmate’s funny reactions to the scene increase her trauma: Then the laughter, disgusted, contemptuous, horrified, seemed,to rise and bloom into something jagged and ugly, and the girls were bombarding her with tampons and sanitary napkin, some from purses, some from a broken dispenser on the wall. They flew like snow and the chant became ‘Plug it up, plug it up, plug it (CAR 8) To avoid all this, she makes herself isolated and detached from the world and does not mingle around with age mates. She is ill-treated even by her mother and she does not have any love or affection for Carrie. Carrie undergoes her first period but since, she is ill informed about this natural process, she feels like she is bleeding to death and other girls upon knowing this in the bathroom start taunting and teasing her. She feels humiliated but later physical education teacher comes for her rescue and escapes her. She makes Carrie understand the process of menstrual cycle. The feeling of the first period creates horror in the minds of readers and it is obvious to realize how the girl would feel if she undergoes first period without any prior education about the same.

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